The Final Post

Looking back on my past blogs, I see how much I have changed as a writer. I have grown a lot because of how often I worked on different aspects of it. I started the year out talking about how my blog will be complete and answer questions asked. I have been on time with all of my blogs and I’m very proud of that. In the beginning of the year I knew English was pretty important but now I know how important it really is.

My favorite blog post we did this year was when we got to chose a creative project on Animal Farm. One of the reasons I enjoyed doing this blog so much was because we could show our creative side while also understanding the deeper meaning of the literary work.

I think my blog is all about expressing my opinions and my views. I know we were given a prompt and had to answer it accordingly to the question but still I talked about what I thought. Like an unknown author said, “The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality.” My work on this was’t about copying people in other period’s blogs but doing my own work. This blog was all about how I felt about the things we were working on in class and how well I understood it.

I began this year knowing little about a lot of the topics we covered this year. Before taking Honors English, I never thought about how there could be more than one desired meaning to a work of literature. All of the work on To Kill a Mockingbird helped me understand what motifs and symbols were in greater depth. To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book because of this year. Harper Lee is such a talented writer.

Word Power was pretty stressful just knowing there would be a test at the end of every week but it really helped me. To this day I’ll hear commercials or movies which use words that I wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t learned all of the different prefixes and suffixes in English this year. They'll say polygamy and think to myself, “many..many marriages.” It taught me so much about what words mean and how they come together.

My favorite project of the year was the five-part paragraph on To Kill a Mockingbird. The reason I liked this was because mine was so original. Also, I understood the book in so much depth I was confident with every word I wrote.

This has been a successful year. I’m so glad I took Honors English this year. I wish I would have signed up for it next year but people told me I should take more than two honors classes.

Thanks for being such a great teacher and for singing to us twice!


:)

My Favorite Assignment This Year!

When I look back on all of the projects, essays and homework we have been assigned I had no doubt which one was my favorite. The five part paragraph on To Kill a Mockingbird was my most memorable piece this year. I spent a lot of time on it and it definitely payed off. When Mrs. Gilman first told us we would have to recite it in front of the class I began to get really nervous because I am not good with reading in front of the class and on top of that, I am not the best with criticism. When I finished reading it, Mrs. Gilman had nothing but positive remarks to say about it.

Not only was this my favorite assignment because of the grade I got but it was about I book I grew to love. I understood this book in depth and wrote it well. It was a good assignment to start the year out because it was on something I had never learned before and it was on a novel that could have essays written in all kinds of ways. I would suggest that she do this with all of the freshman classes because it helped me grow as a writer and boosted my writing confidence.

My Experience With Poetry

Poetry is exposed to us all at very young ages. When I first started going to Kindergarten my mom would take me every Saturday to a place where we would sing songs and recite poems we had memorized for the week. I don't remember specific details as to what the group was called or where we went but I do remember that I always had a huge smile on my face when I would sit in my moms lap, singing and reciting nursery rhymes. Some of the significant ones that we did a lot were "The Ants Go Marching" and "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." Of course, just like every other child I didn't really look or think about what a deeper meaning could have been but really a lot of the poetry out there for children is on the surface.

The next time I was exposed to poetry more often was when we had our poetry unit in middle school. I was in Mrs. Clear's class and she LOVED poetry. Some of the poems I really liked were the ones by Edgar Allen Poe. Although they were somewhat scary wand gory I understood them and I liked how they told a story. This was really the first time I started to analyze poetry. A lot of my classmates complained about how poetry was dumb and useless but I felt the complete opposite.

When it comes to poetry I have really come to appreciate it. Not only do I enjoy reading it I also love to attempt to write poems having to do with my life. The poetry I enjoy the most are the ones that leave you satisfied and have a good meaning. I can't wait to learn even more about poetry!

Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

The main conflict in Romeo and Juliet is the fued between the two families. The Montague's and Capulet's have a great hate for one another which helps illustrate one of the themes. This family fued has to do with the love of Romeo and Juliet. The families fighting makes them both try harder to love one another and makes this play more dramatic. Romeo gave the Capulet's yet another reason to hate him when he killed Tybalt. I feel like some of the conflict that goes on in this play is because of power because although they are "both alike in dignity" they are still different. The hatred for the two families is not just between the parents but it also effects Romeo and Juliet's love for one another.

I don't relate to this conflict with a direct comparison but I have seen a lot of movies that relate to this kind of conflict. A couple will get married and the families won't like the wife or husband which in the movie is usually the climax. Who will they put first? Their parents or the one who they love? I don't know how people put people they haven't known before the family who has always and will always be there for them. I guess I'll only understand how they feel when I am older and married. This conflict is external because of the hatred between the two families but it is definitely also internal because of how the two people must feel on the inside. Knowing that the persons parents don't approve or like you. That would be pretty tough to deal with.

Modern Shakespeare

Westside Story is very similar to Romeo and Juliet. The play we're reading in class has two people coming from different households who fall in love which is the same thing that happens in Westside Story. Tony is part of the jets and he falls in love with a girl from an opposite group name Maria whose brother is the leader of the sharks. Their foresaken love and opposite groups caused them to kill themselves.

Romeo and Juliet 1

A character I really relate with is Juliet. When Juliet was talking she said something along the lines of always wanting to please her mother. I try my best to please both of my parents. The situation is obviously a little different since I am not getting married but I wouldn't date or be good friends with someone who my parents didn't approve of. Juliet wants a man that her mother will like. The comparison between Juliet and me is that we both want to do what our mothers want us to do.

When reading Romeo and Juliet I think the best way for me to understand the play is when we read it together in class having different people play each part. This helps me because I can listen and think while other people read it. Also it helps me when Ms. Smith stops to ask what a certain thing means so we understand it better and can write in what it means. I am able to decipher the main events but some of the side conversations are more difficult to understand because it is the way Shakespeare spoke. When I read at home I don't understand the play as well as I do when we read it together in class.

Wrapping up Great Expectations!

I believe the universal message Charles Dickens was trying to display is that the people who mean most to you in life should come before money and social class. While reading the book this wasn't the theme I thought was the most important but towards the end and when I finished the book, if someone were to ask me what the theme of the book I just read I would say put people before the things in life. An example of this in someones life today would be parents being so concerned about making money and having a nice lifestyle that they don't spend as much time as they should with their children. This doesn't directly parallel the story of Great Expectations but it is a good example for a likely way people put money before friendship and before those who matter most. The parents don't mean to not spend enough time with their kids just like I don't think Pip meant to purposely not spend enough time with Biddy and Joe. In the end hopefully everyone realizes people are more important than things just like Pip did in this novel.